At many colleges and universities, the student union serves as the focal point of campus activity. These days, campus planners are increasingly designing student unions as a multifunctional home to fuse student life and recreational activities under one roof.
Two years ago, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., embarked on a bold expansion and renovation project to dramatically upgrade the outdated Seegers Student Union.
The building was originally constructed in 1960 when enrollment just topped a thousand students. Despite previous expansions and renovations, the 66,000-sf student union was too tired, worn, and undersized to serve as a modern-day campus center for more recent needs of up to 3,300 guests per day.
Ultimately, college officials decided to transform the Seegers Student Union into a contemporary student dining and commons facility to meet the college’s growing, diverse needs.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Seegers Student Union, Muhlenberg College
Allentown, Pa.Building Team
Submitting firm: Bruner/Cott & Associates
Owner/developer: Muhlenberg College
Structural engineer: Barry Isett & Associates
Mechanical engineer: Snyder Hoffman Associated Inc.
General contractor: Alvin H. Butz Inc.General Information
Size: 70,000 sf
Construction cost: $20 million
Construction period: August 2008 to August 2010
Putting The Emphasis on Community Ideals
The Muhlenberg campus is located along a high ridge with a view of the Lehigh Valley. The architectural vocabulary reflects both English and German design traditions.
The 30,000-sf expansion and reconstruction focused on centralizing the Student Life and Student Organization offices, expanding the informal social space, and, most importantly, developing a 600-seat dining facility that could support the strong sense of community within the college.
In an effort to influence design criteria and create a sense of ownership with the Muhlenberg campus population, the Building Team relied on direct and indirect feedback with students, staff, and faculty. “We conducted a number of focus groups and hung a series of comment boards on which students wrote their suggestions, comments, and wishes for the Seegers Student Union,” says Dana Kelly, marketing director with design firm Bruner/Cott & Associates, Cambridge, Mass. “There was a lot of emphasis on the desire to ‘create a living room on campus’ that would serve as a neutral ground for all constituencies.” This factor influenced the social aspects of the design.
Senior staff members from the college served as the Steering Committee and helped clarify the project’s goals. “From an admissions perspective, it was important that the institution respond more deeply to the observances of Jewish students who make up one-third of the student body,” says Glenn Gerchman, director of Seegers Student Union. Maintaining a “strong sense of community” was also crucial. “That’s a characteristic recognized by nearly everyone who walks down Muhlenberg’s academic row,” he says.
Because the Seegers Student Union abuts the principal east-west pathway on the west end of the main quad, students, staff, and faculty were able to track construction progress. Not letting an educational opportunity pass, the Building Team created a Progress Plaza near the construction site where information about the project and its progress was continuously posted, according to Kelly.
Developing The Focal Point on Campus
The Building Team was charged with designing a facility that met a wide range of student dietary requirements and restrictions. One is the Noshery, a new kosher station that has two separate kitchens—one for meat preparation, one for dairy prep. “We believe this is the first fully integrated kosher station on a college campus,” says Kelly. “Integrated meaning that it is not segregated from the other stations like other kosher stations.”
The new food gallery also brings the kitchen out in the open. Food is prepared in a display-cooking format in front of the students, which brings food to students faster while reducing waste and labor cost.
“The response to this format has been tremendous,” says Gerchman. “The meal plan counts are up, and the students have responded favorably all around.”
The reconstructed 600-seat dining room has become a hearthstone visible from the surrounding campus. It can also host a wide variety of campus events. The Light Lounge serves as an active living room, while an outdoor terrace overlooking Brown Mall rounds out the amenities of the structure.
Designed for LEED Gold guidelines but not LEED-certified, the Seegers Student Union incorporates multiple sustainable measures: low-VOC paints and adhesives, recycled tile and carpet, renewable lumber and millwork, a spray-foam insulated building envelope, and integral air and vapor barriers.
“The new Seegers Student Union now completes a new quadrangle on the campus, providing students with an important connection to the outdoors,” says Kelly.
Seegers Student Union defines a new campus space for Muhlenberg College that reinforces the unified structure of the campus. The building balances the institutional ambitions of the college with a desire to be aesthetically and socially innovative. +
Delivery method: Design-bid-build
Related Stories
Retail Centers | Feb 20, 2018
Is there a future in retail banking? Part II
It is critical to not view the physical branch as just another sales channel, but as an important touchpoint along a customer’s journey.
Architects | Feb 15, 2018
AIASF Equity by Design to launch 2018 Equity in Architecture Survey
AIA San Francisco (AIASF) and the Equity by Design Committee, launched the third national Equity in Architecture Survey on February 12, 2018. Building upon the survey conducted in 2016, the third survey will further advance the national movement for equitable practice in the profession.
Urban Planning | Feb 14, 2018
6 urban design trends to watch in 2018
2017 saw the continuation of the evolution of expectations on the part of consumers, developers, office workers, and cities.
Office Buildings | Feb 13, 2018
Office market vacancy rate at 10-year low
Cautious development and healthy absorption across major markets contributed to the decline in vacancy, according to a new Transwestern report.
Architects | Feb 12, 2018
AIA selects seven individuals to receive the 2018 Associates Award
The recipients will be honored at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2018 in New York City.
Architects | Feb 9, 2018
AIA's 2018 Young Architects Award honors 18 recipients
The Young Architects Award recipients will be honored at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2018 in New York City.
Architects | Feb 8, 2018
Three ways cities could evolve 2018
Cities change constantly, but given the numerous disruptive factors spanning technology, policy, climate and more that will impact 2018 – it could prove to be a year of dynamic change for our urban fabric.
Architects | Feb 7, 2018
8 inefficiencies in the architecture + design industry (and possible solutions)
Matthew Rosenberg has identified 8 major inefficiencies in the architecture and design industry, as well as a solution for each of them.
Architects | Feb 5, 2018
Little names new Corporate President and COO
International architecture and design firm Little has appointed Carolyn Rickard-Brideau as its new Corporate President, and Charles Todd as its Chief Operating Officer.
Architects | Feb 1, 2018
How to generate architecture leads
One of the first steps to increasing leads for your design firm is to acknowledge that all leads are not equal, writes Hinge’s Karl Feldman.
